Hi everyone!
My 5 wk old DS is on a really good 3-hour EASY. I've had him on that since day one home from the hospital. My issue is that in all 5 weeks I don't think the dreamfeed is working at all. MY DD (who is now 3 years old) never needed the DF, she would just take about 1-2 ounces and sleep for 5-6 hours so I eliminated it early on and she began sleeping 12 hours by 8 weeks.
Now my problem is that DS will take a FULL bottle dreamfeed but he will still wake up every 3 hours at night to feed. However, right before the dreamfeed he has not eaten in 4 almost 5 hours in some cases and is still asleep when I go to dreamfeed. So I'm a bit confused as to how he can sleep 4-5 hours on his own but when I do the dreamfeed and feed him a full bottle he is unable to go even 3 hours for the rest of the night?
I'm thinking that the dreamfeed is disrupting his sleep at night and causing him to wake every 3 hours after this? He does not wake at all during the dreamfeed, I simply tickle his lip and he drinks it straight, I give a quick burp and lay him back down. He stirs a bit when I put him down but he's totally asleep.
Here is our routine:
7 am wake up and eat
7:45-8:15 play
8:15-9:30 or 10 sleep (about 1.5-2 hours)
10 am eat
play
11:15 nap
1 pm eat
play
2:15 nap
4 pm eat
5 pm cat nap
6 pm bath and jammies
6:30 pm eat
7 pm - swaddle, diaper check and in bed
7:30 pm asleep
10:45 or 11 pm dreamfeed - completely asleep a full 4 oz bottle
1:45 or 2 am nightwaking to eat - he is usually very fussy and has trouble eating the bottle but will eventually take about 2-3 oz
5 or 6 am - this night waking varies. If 5 am I feed him about 2 oz if 6 am I offer a paci and that gets him back to sleep until 7 am.
As you can see the 6:30 pm to 11 pm stretch is 4.5 hours and he is still sleeping then. But then after that he will wake every 3 hours.
My thought is that the dreamfeed breaks up his continuous sleep. I would think that 5 weeks now of a late night bottle would prevent the 1-2 am feed but it hasn't. Should I stop the dreamfeed and let him sleep till he wakes? I would rather like to encourage long stretches of sleep between night wakings, rather then causing nightwakings with a dreamfeed. I should mention that the 7 am wake time is not nearly as long as what I quoted, on the days he wakes at 5 am he's tired and cranky at the 7 am feed and pretty much wants to just sleep. I'm thinking this is because he's been up so early to eat that he's cranky from losing sleep.
Anyway, what do you think? Should I keep it or lose it?
